Fugitive Meth Dealer Turns Himself in and Pleads Guilty

FRESNO, CA—Naser Hajjaj, 29, of Dinuba in Tulare County, turned himself in to the court and on Monday pleaded guilty to involvement in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. For the past three years, Hajjaj had been on the run following his indictment for a long-term drug trafficking conspiracy based in the Kingsburg and Selma areas.

According to the guilty plea, between May 2006 and April 2010, Hajjaj supplied and received methamphetamine and marijuana from Edwan Dablan, 37, of Kingsburg. In May of this year, Dablan was sentenced to 10 years and six months for heading the conspiracy. Hajjaj is scheduled for sentencing on November 18, 2013, before Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii. He faces a maximum prison term of four years and a fine of up to $250,000. Hajjaj agreed that he will not seek a sentence of less than four years. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

The case is the product of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) wiretap investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service, and Fresno Methamphetamine Task Force (FMTF), a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative that consists of law enforcement agents from the DEA, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, Fresno Police Department, California Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement (BNE), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and California Highway Patrol (CHP). The OCDETF Program was established in 1982 to mount a comprehensive attack against organized drug traffickers. Today, the OCDETF Program is the centerpiece of the United States Attorney General’s drug strategy to reduce the availability of drugs by disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations and money laundering organizations and related criminal enterprises.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen A. Escobar is prosecuting this case.